Lestat

Lestat is a Broadway musical inspired by Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles. The score is by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, with the book by Linda Woolverton. The musical had a brief run on Broadway in 2006. Production history The musical had a reading in November 2003, with the title The Vampire Lestat. The reading cast featured James Barbour as Lestat, Jack Noseworthy, Steve Blanchard and Max Von Essen. Lestat premiered in pre-Broadway tryouts at the Curran Theatre, San Francisco, California on December 17, 2005 and closed on January 29, 2006. The musical transferred to Broadway and opened at the Palace Theater on March 25, 2006 and closed on May 28, 2006, after 33 previews and 39 performances. The musical was directed by Robert Jess Roth with musical staging by Matt West. Scenic design was by Derek McLane, costume design by Susan Hilferty, lighting design by Kenneth Posner, sound design by Jonathan Deans, visual concept design by Dave McKean, and hair design by Tom Watson. The title role of Lestat was played by Hugh Panaro, and the cast starred Carolee Carmello as Gabrielle, Drew Sarich as Armand, Jim Stanek as Louis, Roderick Hill as Nicolas, Michael Genet as Marius, and Allison Fischer as Claudia. The choreographer Jonathan Butterell was added to the Broadway creative team "to give his perspective on the staging." Elton John explained that he had written two new songs for the Broadway production: "Right Before My Eyes" and "My Beautiful Boy," for Lestat's mother, Carolee Carmello. He also noted that "The storyline has certainly changed in Lestat." An additional change is that "Lestat typing his memoirs into a laptop, with super titles being shown to the audience, has been abandoned since San Francisco." The CurtainUp reviewer noted: "Press reports from out-of-town about songs, characters, scenes and performers being dropped and/or replaced indicated that there was plenty of work to do on this particular incarnation."